One of the jurors who helped decide the fate of Tiger King Joe Exotic has outlined a second murder plot that formed the basis of the zoo owner's conviction. Exotic has risen to celebrity status following Netflix's release of Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness, however, he's serving a 22-year-prison sentence after being found guilty of a murder-for-hire plot, as well as several federal wildlife violations. The docuseries is centered on Joe's Oklahoma zoo and his rivalry with activist and sanctuary owner Carole Baskin. It's been quite successful, given the bizarre incidents detailed, and even drew in more viewers in its first 10 days than Stranger Things season 2 did. But some attribute Tiger King's success to the ongoing coronavirus quarantine.
The feud between Exotic and Baskin got to the point where the former tried to have the latter killed, yet Exotic has become a fan favorite who President Donald Trump says he's considering pardoning. Exotic, whose real name is Joseph Maldonado-Passage, spoke to Netflix from prison ahead of the show's launch and insisted he was over the Baskin saga, adding he was only focused on getting out of prison.
A juror from the case, identified as just Kristin, is not pleased with the way the series made Exotic look, with claims he was portrayed as a nice person and ultimately a victim. Speaking to Nancy Grace of Fox Nation, Kristin lamented over the fact that people now believe Exotic was convicted over nothing. Per the show's revelations, Exotic attempted to hire a worker from his zoo to kill Baskin for $3,000 but the worker simply made off with the money and never tried fulfilling his wishes.
Kristin revealed Exotic tried hiring another person for the job after his employee swindled him out of his $3,000, with a lengthy recording exposing a conversation between Exotic and a supposed hitman who was actually an undercover agent. She pointed out that he could have been convicted on two counts of murder-for-hire simply based on the recording that confirmed there were two attempts to hire a killer. She said:
There was a long recording of [the apparent hitman] meeting Joe. We could have convicted on both murder-for-hire counts based on one sentence that Joe said, which was: ‘The first guy that I hired to kill her ran away with my $3,000. Now we’re going to try this again.’
To be fair, Tiger King has portrayed Exotic as an eccentric personality who was perhaps harshly sentenced to 22 years in prison. He's now pretty popular, even making his way into a video game - somewhat - and there are likely many viewers out there who would like to see him regain his freedom. Taking into account the revelation above, though, he could have gotten sentenced to a lot more jail time.
Source: Fox Nation